BALLISTEA, in Antiquity, songs accompanied by dancing, used on occasions of victory. Vopiscus has preserved a song of this kind sung in honour of Aurelian, who, in the Sarmatian war, was said to have killed forty-eight of the enemy in one day with his own hand. Mille, mille, mille, mille, mille decollavimus: Unus homo mille, mille, mille, mille decollavit: mille, mille, mille virat, qui mille, mille occidit. Tantum vini habet nemo, quantum fudit sanguinis. The same writer subjoins another popular song of the same kind: Mille Francos, mille Sarmatas, semel occidimus: mille, mille, mille, mille, mille Persas quærimus. The term is derived from the Greek βαλλειν, I cast or toss, on account of the motions used in this dance, which consisted in elevating, swinging, and throwing round the hands. The ballistea were a kind of popular ballads, composed by poets of the lower class, with little regard to the laws of metre.